01. Roll Call.

Harry Mason. Chairman.
Chris Payne. Treasurer and Memberships Administrator.
Amanda Burt. Secretary.
Justin Macleod. Events Coordinator.
Carol Forrester. Executive Officer.
Catherine McManus. Executive Officer.
Mark Tyler. Assistant Web Master.

Carl McGee, Christine Mason, David Richards, Greg Hamilton, Ian White, Jim Bradley, John Hosch, John Hinchliffe, John
Pitts, John Wells, Katie Myers, Ken Scott, Linda Tyler, Lisa Peck, Mary Hassall, Maurice Pothecary, Michelle Collins,
Miriam Raymond, Monique Lannott, Ned Benton, Peter Beasley, Peter Hallam, Roma Creech, Rosemary Bradley, Sal Pitts, Shirley Grant, Stephen Hassall, Steve Pallett, Sue Pallett, Teresa Payne, Trevor Franklin.

02. Apologies.

Richard Wilkin. Web Master.
Andrew Payne, Ann Saunders, Billy Whitcombe, Charlotte Payne, Dennis Bowden, Elisabeth Standen, Ian McNamara, Jackie Glynn,

03. Acceptance of October’s Minutes.

Proposed by Stephen Hassall.
Seconded by Carl McGee.

04. Matters Arising From Octobers Minutes.

There were None.

05. Chairman’s Report.

Harry Mason: He doesn’t have a great deal to say, because as we’re all aware, he has joined as Chair, towards the end of a
term of office for the Executive Committee. And therefore it’s winding down to some extent. He has attended a Lounge
Chat, and One to Ones. He’s chaired Executive Meetings. Things are going along just nicely. He doesn’t have too much
more he can say on his report at this time. What he would like to do, on this occasion, from the Chair, is to thank all
the volunteers, who work so hard on behalf of TAFN. Whether you are leading an event or whatever you are doing, TAFN
wouldn’t be able to function without the many volunteers, who do all kinds of different things. And he would just like to
place on record his gratitude, as Chair and as a Member of TAFN for the work that everyone does.
No Questions.

06. Treasurer’s and Memberships Report.

6a. Treasurer’s Report for September.

This will also be the last report for 2013/14.
Opening Balance: £ 1,641.82
Paid In: £ 3,501.50 as follows:

• Bingo: £ 89.00
• Bonus Ball: £ 190.00
• Donations: £ 222.50
• Transfer From Savings: £ 3,000.00 to boost the Current account

Paid Out: £ 2,446.19 as follows

• 1 and 1 Limited: £ 71.99
• Bingo: £ 95.00
• Bonus Ball: £ 100.00
• Members Gifts: £ 1,879.20
• Tech Support: £ 300.00

Closing Balance: £ 2,697.13

• Transfer to Current Account: £ 3,000.00

Savings Total: £16,442.76
Instant Account closed and Transferred to 7 Day Notice Account. Although all accounts no Immediate access and Requests
dealt with, within 24 hours.
PayPal Credits: £ 120.23
PayPal Total: £ 1,385.39
TAFN Grand Total: £20,525.82

07. Memberships Administrator’s Report.

We welcomed 2 new Guests during October and had no New Members. Because the New Member that we have had will be reported
in November’s Minutes not in October’s. We have deleted 1 Member, and there may be others as he is struggling to get
responses from Members from emails about Memberships. he has 6 that he originally gave till the end of October to respond,
but as he has been busy, he’s given them an extra few days. This is Members who should have renewed in September and
before.
No Questions.

08. Secretary’s Report.

Amanda Burt: She has been doing the usual Communicator and List Guidelines. Reminding people about Member’s Meetings,
taking Apologies, doing the Minutes for the Exec Meetings. Attending Exec One to Ones. And taking the vote for the
Constitutional Change.
No Questions.

09. Web Master’s Report (Read by the Assistant Web Master.)

Mark Tyler: We’ve been very busy this month, once again, testing Plugins for the Web Site. Also Sue’s Kitchen, that is a
massive task, he thinks it’s something like about 400 pages, all got to be published. Also the Memorial, Greg has been
working on the Memorial. We’d like to thank him for that. Also Ian’s Diary, we’ve been publicising that. Linda has been
doing all the photos, putting text to photos. Also the Membership Plugin, him and Richard were working till 3am this
morning on those. And also, would like to thank Chris for his help as well.
No Questions.

10. Events Coordinator’s Report.

Justin Macleod: In October we had 2 Halloween events. We had an audio presentation, brought to us by courtesy of
Chrissie, ‘A Most Unusual Vacation’ by Lee Storm, which was a ghost story with a cast of speech synthesiser performers.
Which was a very novel idea and was very well attended. He thinks there were about 22 people in for that event, so you
obviously enjoyed that. We might try and find and find similar forms of entertainment for the future. The following night
we had a Halloween Party, with a little bit of this and a little bit of that, some ghost stories, some fact finding and
research, a play, a couple of quizzes, hosted by Tony and himself, and that all seemed to go very well, a nice little
mish-mash of things. he would like to thank his team for putting all that lot on. Tony for doing the research and hosting
quizzes. Katie for her superb acting administration and likewise Sal, who’s really grown into her acting responsibilities.
And Chrissie of course for providing the play. And then we went straight from that to the Bonfire Night event. Which has
had a makeover. We didn’t just give you 2013’s unsuccessful squib. As many of you will remember, that was the time of the
great TAFN meltdown. We did give it a makeover and polish it. And found that because of the inter-activity of the event,
there wasn’t enough time to get it all in. The feedback we’ve had so far from that event was very positive. We did some
things that we haven’t done before, visit to a gunpowder factory, and we had some new actors join us, Lynette and Linda.
That was a lot of good fun. We have enough material for another Bonfire Night event next year, covering the history of the
plot. We held the first Bonfire Night event on Wednesday November 5th itself. We were going to hold the Historical
Aspects on the following Sunday. This, however, didn’t prove possible, because of laptop issues, and because it was half
an event worth of material. Greg has very kindly offered to help him realise a dream that he had for the event, when it
was conceived. So what we’re hoping to do, is to get together with Greg, sort that out, and have the historical stuff next
year. Thanks ever so much to all the team for their tremendous hard work in both those events, and we look forward to the
feedback as ever. Always gratefully received. So let us know what you thought of them, by whatever means. he Believes it
is possible to leave anonymous feedback, via TAFN’s contact form, depending on the validation Richard’s set up or you can
just email events@tafn.org.uk . Couple of other things to mention this month. There are 2 events in the pipeline, which
have been proposed to us, which haven’t quite been finalised yet. But should be announced very soon. We had a one off
event from Sal, regarding Downton Abbey. Which unfortunately, didn’t go as well as we’d hoped. If your interested in
future Downton Abbey events, because he’s sure ITV won’t abandon such a lucrative franchise just yet, do let the event
address know. Perhaps it was
mis-timed or there wasn’t enough notice. if you are interested in a future event of that kind, do send us an email or get
in touch with Sal at Coffee and Cake. And we might put another one of those on. Catherine’s back with her events. Very
glad to see her back in the saddle after her well deserved rest. She will no longer be doing the Life-Skills event as he
believes he mentioned in a previous Members Meeting. But she’s back in force with Chain Reaction and what was the Friday
Morning Quiz, now the Monday Morning Quiz. Chain Reaction and the Quiz have changed places, to ensure that she can get a
bit of sleep, and of course with her Aussie Mixed Bag. Geoff M, has very kindly stepped forward and given us an impromptu
quiz, to fill the Sunday slot vacated by his computer problems, and the decision to postpone the second half of Bonfire
Night till next year. Mark has finished his stint, covering the Friday Night Quiz, for Chris’s well deserved holiday, and
thanks very much to him for doing that. He was also compelled to cancel Movie Nights, because of his aforementioned
technical difficulties, which have effected various other aspects of his work as well. Mostly administrative, behind the
scenes stuff to do with List Management, Exec Duties and so forth. Getting back in the saddle now. We’re very good for
your Advent Calendar Contributions, looking now, ahead to next month. If you would like to do a Christmas Greeting and
share with us a Christmas Memory, and you haven’t already done one, but would like to do one, do please, email us at
events@tafn.org.uk , or get in touch with one of the events team. We’ll be happy to record you and include you in the
Calendar. Or if you’d like to contribute to the Calendar by way of a performance, i.e., a poem, a song, a monologue, a bit
of Christmas Comedy, a Christmas recipe, anything like that. You would be more than welcome. Just to reiterate, the
Advent Calendar may be subject to some disruption this year. Depending on when we get Communicator 3, and how well
transition goes. So it may be a case of getting some material to you retrospectively, but it will all come out at some
point, so do come forward with your contributions for that. Also in respect of Christmas, we are interested in your top 3
favourite Christmas Carols. An email will be going out about this tomorrow. Give us your top 3, and why you like them,
any particular versions you like. Send those to tony.bowers@blueyonder.co.uk . If that address doesn’t work, or you find
it a bit hard to remember, send it to events@tafn.org.uk . And he’ll pick them up there, just as well. We’re obviously
busy preparing for Christmas, in all it various forms. There’ll be more about that in the next Members Meeting. It only
remains for him to thank his wonderful team, who have worked very hard over the last month, in various capacities. And
everyone else who has contributed. Plus to remind everybody, if you want to promote, reschedule or cancel an existing
event, please email, eventinfo@tafn.org.uk . Now some people have been doing that, and their emails haven’t been getting
through him, at least. Now if that happens, and your promo hasn’t been sent out, if there’s time, do email it to his
personal address, which is justinmacleod@hotmail.com . He’ll definitely receive that. If there does seem to be a problem
with your emails getting through to eventinfo@tafn.org.uk , as there has been lately with certain event hosts, do let
Richard know, via the web contact form or by writing to webmaster@tafn.org.uk . Because of course, if you’re having
trouble getting through to the eventinfo address, which he will confirm when you write to his personal address, there may
be 3 problems. either it may be at his end, or it may be at the TAFN Server end, a problem with the forwarding alias, or
of course, the problem may be at your end. And Richard will be able to help us to narrow that down. If you would like to
give feedback on an existing event or propose a new one, you can write to events@tafn.org.uk , or you can use the
contact form and either contact the Events Coordinator or the Events Team. Our next Meeting will be next week. We’re
awaiting the return of Tony from holiday, of course his events have been suspended. Thanks very much to Sal for covering
those, and Mark for covering his Chain Reaction spots, and welcome back to Amanda, of course, for Coffee and Cake. So Tony
will be back and his events will be returning as of next week.
No Questions.

11. M. A. D. Update.

Stephen Hassall: M.A.D. Committee Members are; Ian McNamara, John Hosch, Stephen Hassall, Monique Lannott and Steve Hyde-Dryden. There were no complaints this month. Most of their work was preparing the results of the TAFN Technology
Survey, which we undertook to do. If anyone has any concerns or complaints, they should write to mad@tafn.org.uk .
Alternatively, you can go to the TAFN web site, tafn.org.uk/contacts, open up the combo box and at the bottom, look for
concerns and complaints. And then fill it in.
No Questions.

12. Result Of The Constitutional Change Vote.

Harry Mason: The first thing he would like to say, before he gives the result of the vote is, he would have been happier
had we had a greater turnout of voters. However, the voting went as follows: The number of votes cast was 54. There were
51 yes’s, and 3 no’s. So therefore the changes to the Constitution with regards to the election of a New Executive
Committee stands and the Constitutional wording will be changed accordingly.
Justin Macleod: He’d just like to say a huge thank you, and echo what harry said about the vote counters. They do a
phenomenal amount of hard work, particularly with the introduction of the Voting Booth. He actually campaigned to have the
Voting Booth vote only be a week, this time, in light of what it is and there be a Special Meeting as well, and Amanda said
no, we need to have 2 weeks, we need to give them a fair crack of the whip. And he thinks that was very dedicated of her.
It is an hour every other day for the whole 2 week period, and he thinks Amanda and Sandra have done a fantastic job.
Amanda Burt: Thanks very much for that, Justin. She wants to thank a couple of people. Justin for writing out the emails
for the Constitution and the vote. Justin and Mark for helping with the Special Meeting. Richard, because he made sure
the Sandra and herself were able to get the emails, and luckily we had no discrepancies. Chris helped making sure she knew
the voting ratio, in case the vote wasn’t going to pass. And Sandra who did an absolutely sterling job helping me with the
counting.
Harry Mason: It’s only fair that we do what, because as he said at the start of the Meeting, without the help of all these
volunteers doing all sorts of different things, TAFN wouldn’t function anything like as well as it does.
John Wells: How many Members do we have, Harry? 50 Members voting seems abysmal.
Chris Payne: At the last count John, we had 237.
Harry Mason: So it’s not really very many people voting, is it?
Peter Beasley: No, but that’s their option to do that, isn’t it? To vote or not to vote.
Harry Mason: Absolutely right Peter. All he’s saying is, it would be nice if we had more people voting in these things,
particularly if it had been a really much more up market vote than the admin things that we just do on this occasion.
However, the vote is carried. The Constitution will be changed. And the appropriate arrangements will be made to inform
the Charities Commission of it.
Carl McGee: He would like to apologise for not voting, but he found it difficult and didn’t understand what he was voting
on. He had it explained to him in a room, but he still couldn’t grasp it. And then there was emails going around saying
there were 2 parts and 1 part and he just didn’t understand unfortunately.
Justin Macleod: Just like to come back on what Carl said. To reply to Carl in particular and an exultation to the wider
Membership. If there’s a vote or procedure that you don’t understand, please, please, please do contact us. That is what
we’re here for. He heartily agrees with John’s sentiment and Harry’s sentiment, that it is a shame that more people don’t
choose to vote. It’s an important part of TAFN, is the democratic process and if you don’t vote, for whatever reason, then
you don’t get to have your say, and your rather out of control of things. He doesn’t say that as rebuke, but it would be
nice if we could reflect what the whole Membership wants, and if the reason you’re not voting is because you don’t
understand how it all works, then we really would love to take however much time it requires, to explain it all to you.
That’s what we have Lounge Chats for, that’s what we have Exec One to Ones for. If a future circumstance should arise,
where someone is unclear, please do contact
exec@tafn.org.uk . Or use the public contact form and we’ll nominate one of us to sit in a room and chat with you, or chat
with you on the phone, or whatever it is you need. Because we are very eager that everyone should engage with what’s going
on, and not be left out due to not understanding stuff. He’s sorry that Carl has not been sufficiently supported, and
therefore not been able to vote, but hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to address you more thoroughly. If you come to
and say ‘Help, what’s going on?’
Chris Payne: Just to follow on from what Justin was saying, if a Member, and he’ll use Carl as an example. If you don’t
understand the first time that somebody’s spoken to you, then come back a second and if necessary a third time. Because
it’s important that our Members do vote for these matters. He knows in the past, our usual highlight is the bi-annual Exec
Committee vote, where we have 112 to 115 people voting, but that still very much only half our Membership actually bothered
to do so. And he uses the word bothered, that could be the wrong wording, some people don’t have the inkling to vote, no
matter what. But if you don’t understand, come back again and again and again if necessary, till you do understand what’s
going on.
Amanda Burt: She’s very sorry, she did try to explain the Constitutional changes to Carl. But obviously, she didn’t do a
very good job, because he still didn’t understand it. So she does apologise for that.
Stephen Hassall: Actually the question has been answered by Justin and Chris. The only thing he would say is, That it is
so important, rather than to grumble about it on the Main TAFN Announce List, go to the Exec One to One if necessary. He
thinks that is particularly essential, because the questions will be answered unbiased that way, rather than by the banter
that goes about on the main email list.
Harry Mason: Just wanted to jump in at this stage and say, if he’s personally on a One to One when this kind of thing
comes up, if somebody doesn’t understand something, he’s very happy to talk it through with them. And even though One to
One is only supposed to last an hour, if it takes longer than the hour, he’ll sit with that person as long as they need me
to sit with them. It is not an issue for him as Chair, so long as he is Chair of this organisation, he will be more than
happy to do that, and he wants people to understand that and not be afraid to come forward, and have a word if they feel
they want to. Any more questions?
Amanda Burt: She would concur with Harry, and be quite willing to do that as well.
John Wells: Does the Constitution have a figure, where you’ve got to have a percentage of the Membership to vote, before
something can be carried forward.
Justin Macleod: If he could just come back on that, the Constitution that 2 thirds of the people voting, need to agree on
the amendment that’s being passed. So it’s not 2 thirds of the Membership, it’s 2 thirds of those that vote.
John Wells: So you don’t have to have 50% or 60% of the Membership then?
Justin Macleod: No, it would be 66% of the voting Members. And therefore we don’t have a problem if people just don’t
engage in the voting process.
Chris Payne: Sorry Harry, to jump in like this, but it does mean, and he’s going to give a simple scenario here, John. If
we have 40 people vote, and it was a yes-no vote, like we’ve just had, 16 people saying no, would mean that the vote would
not carry. So those people sending emails, saying that they couldn’t vote because they disagreed with part of it, should
have voted no, and therefore, obviously it probably wouldn’t have been carried. And then the Exec would have to come back
to the Membership, to find out what was wrong, so that we could then try a second time.
John Wells: Now that’s been explained. As Justin said, it’s 2 thirds of the votes cast.
Carl McGee: Thanks for explaining all that guys, and thanks Amanda for your help.
Justin Macleod: He just wants to add that people shouldn’t feel ashamed or silly, by coming forward. He’ll tell us
straight, the Constitution is an intimidating, and let’s be honest, Boring Document. It was one of the things that Paul,
when he was Chair, excelled at, was the Constitution and it’s nuts and bolts, and while Paul was Chair, he thought, ‘oh
he’s not going near that, he’d let someone who knows what their doing deal with it. And he sat back, and didn’t really
engage with the Constitution, and it was only towards the end of Paul’s term, that he thought he was being a bit of a
sucker. And that’s when he started to get engaged with it a bit more, and slowly got more familiar with it. But it is an
intimidating and complex document. And people shouldn’t be hesitant or ashamed to comes to us regarding any issue or
procedure, if they need clarification.
Harry Mason: Most legal documents are of an imtimidatory nature, and it is quite difficult, sometimes, to understand the
legal language in which they’re couched. As we’ve said several times already, please, come and ask if you don’t
understand. We will do our best to explain whatever the thing that is happening at the time.
Greg Hamilton: Is there anything we can do, to undertake an understanding of why our Members feel so disengaged? This is
not the only vote that has come in very low. Our Members are not voting on these thing for some reason. He thinks it
might be an idea, if we can, to try and assess why people don’t feel they should vote.
Chris Payne: To answer that one Greg, he thinks it would be very difficult. Because, even if we asked the next M.A.D.
team, to do a survey on Memberships on why they don’t want to vote, it’s not necessarily going to give us an answer.
Because, he believes Carol has told us and Monique/Stephen, or John H can clarify this. He believes the number of people
who responded to the technology survey, was 33. So what happened to the other 139 Members? He doesn’t think we’d ever get
a proper answer for it.
Harry Mason: Very tricky, isn’t it really? it would be good Greg, if we were able to find out why people don’t vote. But
at the end of the day, the individual has, as has been said on more than one occasion, every right not to vote if they
choose to do so. The only thing that does, is you don’t vote for something, and then you don’t like it afterwards, well,
to be frank, the tough comes into play, doesn’t it? Because, if you don’t vote and didn’t try to influence the decision,
then you really haven’t got much of an axe to grind, have you?
Greg Hamilton: He still thinks we should try and find out why. But it’s an idea anyway for the future.
Monique Lannott: she just wants to comment on what Greg asked. She thinks she basically agrees with everything that’s
been said. She does think it’s a good idea, for the next M.A.D. or someone to try and find out so many Members are not
voting or responding to surveys. But your not going to get that result from a survey, because obviously, these people
don’t feel like doing surveys. She’s sure if you were to do a study of it, that may be interesting. You’d find out that
the people who vote, the people who do the surveys, are people who are active on the list, or the chat rooms, that those
are all the same people. And that all the other people are on TAFN for other reasons.
Peter Beasley: He read the survey, but nothing on there effects him. He’s on Windows XP, so most of it didn’t relate to
him, so he didn’t bother filling it in.
Harry Mason: Well now, we don’t want to get too side-tracked onto matters of the survey. Are there any more questions
Amanda, that particularly relate to the subject in hand?
Amanda Burt then asked Stephen if his question related to the subject in hand?
Stephen Hassall: Not to the original subject. But to answer Peter’s question, filling in the survey, because he in actual
fact, has no intention of going on a portable device. But, at least people will know that. And that is the difference.
He has answered the question as he believes, to the best of his ability, and if it turns out that he is the only one who
doesn’t want to use portable devices, then that is up to him. At least the people that matter know.
Harry asked if there were any more, because we don’t want to prolong this. We’ve gone through quite a spectrum of things
already on this subject, and things surrounding the subject. The bottom line is, that 54 people voted. The Executive
Committee is concerned about that. Other people on the Membership should be concerned it. He doesn’t know if there’s much more we can say about it at this stage.

13. Vice Chair On The Executive Committee.

Harry Mason: Trevor Franklin brought this up at last month. He and a couple of other people, expressed the view that
there ought to be one. The Executive Committee said they would take it away and have a look at it. This we have duly
done. The proposal of the Executive Committee, to put to the Membership, is this. As you are all aware, When the new
Executive Committee is Elected, there will be a Special Meeting at the end of the voting period to announce the Members of
the new Executive Committee. At that time, people will be given the opportunity, to vote for one of the Executive Members,
to become Vice Chair. And that will be a secret Ballot to take place during the Meeting. That is the proposal. If he
hasn’t got it completely right, he’s sure someone like Justin will come and help him out.
Justin Macleod: No, that’s it in a nutshell. So you do your normal Exec Vote. The vote counters feedback to Exec who the
new Exec is. That’s announced at the Special Meeting, then the Membership will be informed, who, out of the New Exec is
willing to put themselves forward for the additional responsibility of Vice Chair. And you get to vote by a Secret Ballot,
just within that Meeting, to nominate the new Vice Chair. It is important to bear in mind, that under this proposal, if
you do not attend the Special Meeting, you will not get to have a vote on this issue. Because, with it being the Exec
handover period from old to new, we can’t hold a separate voting period. That would be too much administrative difficulty.
Trevor Franklin: Is this the Exec decides who out of the 7 Members on the Executive Committee, who becomes vice Chairman?
Chris Payne: No Trevor. As you put it, the 7 people who have been Elected, will notify the secretary at the beginning of
the election period, that they are willing to stand for the Vice Chair Person. Because at the end of the day, we don’t have
enough work for a separate duty of Vice Chair Person, they would only ever come into action, if something untowards
happened to the Chair Person. So if we’ve got, for example, 3 people are willing to stand at the Special Meeting, those 3
people will be announced, and then Members would have the chance Secretly, to pass their vote to a counter, who would then
announce who the Members have voted to be Vice Chair. Whereas in the past, the Exec have elected their Vice Chairman
within house. But again, if it’s not what you want, then obviously we’ve got to look at it again.
Harry Mason: You can’t have a situation where, you have a Vice Chair, where that would be someone’s only duty. In other
words, you cannot be creating an additional position on the Executive Committee, for a person just to be Vice Chair,
because that would be superfluous to requirements. Because, that person would have virtually nothing to do. He means if
he were Chair when the new Exec is formed, the Vice Chair’s only got to do anything, if he either can’t turn up, or he’s
poorly. So you need to have a Vice Chair, form the existing Committee Members. What we’re doing here, is giving Members
the opportunity to choose that person, from people who have said they are willing to do the job, if they are elected to
the Committee. We’re not telling you, we’re going to tell you who is Vice Chair. Although we could do that, we don’t want
to. We want to give people the opportunity to vote within that Special Meeting for the Vice Chair. And we think, that is
the best way forward. He hopes that Members overall will agree with that, but that’s up to your good selves.
Trevor Franklin: He sees what you’re getting at. Really, you’re just practically going back to what it was originally.
Before, there used to be a Vice Chairman. Most companies, most proper institutions have got a Vice Chairman. Somebody
that’s there to take over, in case anything happens to the Chairman. Also to share the workload with the Chairman. And
there always used to be work. Maybe the Exec Committee’s got too big. He means, we’ve had other people co-opted on to the
Exec Committee, and we’ve also had 2 roles created. We just used to have a Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer, he thinks
there were only 5 when he joined. but there was always a Vice Chairman. And somebody who can take over, otherwise, you
look what happened last time. It takes about 42 days to elect a new Chairman. We have to go all through that. Whereas if
you got somebody waiting to stand in, they can just take over. But, hey, you’ve decided it, not me.
Harry Mason: No! The point is though, that there is currently a Vice Chair within the Executive Committee. And the
person, which is Chris Payne, was duly appointed, by the Executive Committee. And actually we’re not saying that we’ve
decided. What we’re saying is, that we are actually saying to Members, you will have the opportunity to VOTE for a Vice
Chair, at the Special Meeting. That’s not exactly saying to people, we’ve decided, because we haven’t.
Trevor Franklin: But you’re saying to Members, you can pick a Vice Chairman, but out of the Executive Committee.
Justin Macleod: Couple of things, it’s very important to realise that even if we change the way a Vice Chair is appointed,
it will not save us the possibility of having a repeat performance of what happened when Ann resigned. The Constitution
says that if an Exec term has more than 6 months to run, a new Chair must be elected. And so we would still have to go
through all that rigmarole. It doesn’t matter how Vice Chairs are appointed, that will always be the case, unless the
Constitution is amended. And he doesn’t see a reason to do that. Further more, this is just a proposal, if everybody
doesn’t like it, then we’ll take it away and look at it again. So he guesses what we’re looking for is a straw pole of how
you feel about it.
Monique Lannott: She doesn’t mean to be ugly, she not sure what the whole fuss is about. We’ve always had, at least for
the 4 years that she has been a Member, Chris has been stepping in, in case a Chairperson was not there, so effectively
being the Vice Chairperson. Other than being there when the Chairperson can’t be there, what does a Vice Chairperson do?
Unless we could create a job for them such as publicity. She doesn’t know what all the fuss is about, as long as stuff
runs smoothly. As long as we have someone who is capable to chair Meetings, to take over, to help out when the Chairperson
is unable to do it. She doesn’t know what all the fuss is about. At least now we all get a say, the Exec has listened to
us, and we all get a say about from the Exec, who we want to be Vice Chair.
Ian White: He thinks, from Trevor’s point, this situation is fine. He’s against big unyielded Committees. We’ve gone
from 5 to 7 now and if your going to have a Vice Chair, there’s going to be 8. We’ll have a bigger committee than the
Membership in a bit.
Stephen Hassall: He assumes that at the Special Meeting, there will be 3 or 4 people willing to take on the extra role, if
called upon of Vice Chairman?
Chris Payne: That’s what was said Stephen. Obviously at the end of the day, when people put their names forward, to stand
for the Exec, if only 1 person says at that stage, that they are happy to be Vice Chair as well, then obviously it becomes
a non-entity. Or you look at the avenue that Monique’s just introduced, obviously 1 thing we don’t have at TAFN is a
publicity Officer, someone to stand for that position in tag with Vice Chairman, that gives you your second vote from the
start.
Harry Mason: That would be a way of dealing with it. However that would go with what Ian White has just said about the
Committee getting bigger by the minute. We don’t want it to get too big, do we?
Justin Macleod: Just to go back to Stephen’s question. Basically, say 1 person puts themself forward for Vice Chair, only
1 person from the Exec Committee, well then they would get it by default. They’ve already been elected to the Exec, so
there’s no real need for a second confidence vote. But if more than 1 of the Exec puts themselves forward, you would get
to decide between them. And if you create a separate position of Vice Chair, all you’re creating is another glorified
Executive Officer. So we would have 3 Executive Officers with non-specific responsibilities. Now, publicity’s been
mentioned. Because we are still launching our web site, it’s not felt by the current Exec, that it is appropriate to have
a much publicity going on at the moment anyway. And a fixed publicity position might not always be appropriate. At this
current time, it has been difficult to find the 2 Executive Officers we have, enough work to do, so if we need a publicity
Officer, we can use 1 of the Exec Officers.
Harry Mason: He thinks we’ve given this quite enough time and we should now come to some conclusion on it. If we have
sort of a straw pole, if people key up and say whether they agree with it or not. He thinks that will solve this one.
Roma Creech: How long can someone serve on the Committee? As Treasurer or Secretary or anything else?
Justin Macleod: until they choose not to stand or they are not voted in at the moment.
Roma Creech: Thanks. What are we voting for? To do what you say and have someone from the Exec, or we don’t want to agree
with it?
Peter Beasley: We had a Vice Chairman or Vice Chair if you’re politically correct, which he’s not. It was Paul Weston who
changed it. We always did have until then, we had a Vice Chair as an Elected Officer as far as he remembers.
Harry Mason: Alright Peter, he takes the point there. But we need to come to a conclusion on this one. Can he ask people
to key up, if they are happy, that the proposal of the Exec, that if necessary there is a Secret Ballot at the Special
Meeting, to elect a Vice Chair from the people who have said that they’re happy to do it? If there’s only one person says
they’ll do it, then they get the job by default, and there won’t be any need for an election. But if there’s 2 or more,
then there would need to be a Secret Ballot of the members who attend the Meeting. So could people please just indicate if
they agree with that?
Monique Lannott: Yes. Mark Tyler: Yes. Justin Macleod: Yes. Katie Myers: Yes. Ken Scott: Yes. Sal Pitts: Yes.
Maurice Pothecary: Yes. Teresa Payne: Yes. Linda Tyler: Yes. Greg Hamilton: Yes. Lisa Peck: Yes. Amanda Burt:
Yes. Carol Forrester: Yes. Peter Hallam: Yes. Stephen Hassall: Yes. Catherine McManus: Yes. John Hosch: Yes. John
Hinchliffe: Yes. Steve Pallett: Yes. Ian White: Yes. David Richard: Yes. Carl McGee: Yes. Roma Creech: Yes.
Harry Mason: That seems to him, to be virtually unanimous. So that is what we will do then. So when we get to the
Special Meeting, it will be sorted out there, and people will be told, who the people are, and then they can decide on
that one. And that closes this particular subject.
Chris Payne: Asked if we should see if there are any No’s. There were 24 Yes’s. Harry said, go on then, anyone disagree?
Trevor Franklin: No. Peter Beasley: No.

14. Any Other Business.

Peter Hallam: He would like to ask about the progress if there is any, on the Communicator 3 on TAFN.
Peter Beasley: So would he.
Harry asked Mark if he was able to say anything at this stage? Mark replied no. An email’s gone off as we know, to Barry,
But he hasn’t come back as yet. So at this precise moment, no.
Justin Macleod: More than one email, if he understands correctly.
Mark said Yes. A few emails have gone to Barry, but so far, no information as yet.
Chris Payne: This was something that was brought up at this morning’s Exec Meeting, and while we were in the Meeting,
Richard sent off an email this morning. That is the latest one that’s gone out. The latest we do have is that it hasn’t
changed, that we were going to get it by the end of November, which in about 10 days time.
Harry Mason: We would like, as an Exec, to bring you much better news than this. At the moment we can’t, because we’re in the hands of Barry Jennings of VIP. So until we get concrete information from him, and believe him, there’s nobody would
want Communicator 3 more than him, and as soon as they get some concrete information from Barry, you’ll be the first to
know, he promises.
Justin Macleod: It is fair to say, that we’ve heard nothing to suggest that we’re not still on course, for our end of
November-ish deadline. The transition should be fairly smooth, he’s informed. So it’s just a case of watch this space at
the moment.
Harry Mason: So, well he thinks Peter who put the question, has gone out of the room. He’s not sure what else we can say
on that one. In fact he doesn’t think there is anything we can say. So in the absence of Pete, we’ll have to move on. He
asked Amanda if anyone had messaged her with anything else. The answer was no. So he then closed the Meeting, saying the next Meeting will be on the 11th of December at 8 o’clock in this room. He then thanked us all for coming.